Gringotts, Pumpkin Juice, and the Daily Prophet
by Dancing in the Minefield
Summary: When the Boy Who Lived busted a dragon out of Gringotts, the news is splattered all over the wizarding world - including to a certain redheaded Weasley at Hogwarts.


**My friend and I were having a competition of sorts to see who could write and upload this first, because she needed ideas and I gave her this one. I've gotten rather fond of it, though, so I'm giving it a shot. **

The goblets in the Great Hall of Hogwarts were adept at replenishing themselves. However, they weren't too happy when three seconds after they'd filled to the brim with the morning pumpkin juice, Ginny Weasley knocked the her goblet over and spilled the contents onto her breakfast.

The _Daily Prophet_ had just arrived, and ever since the Dark Lord had risen again, every single wizard in Britain had started ordering it for updates on . . . everything, really. The _Prophet_ hadn't published anything particularly interesting for a while, just the usual nonsense about the Boy Who Lived being the hero who would save them all and how to keep inferi, dementors, and other Dark creatures away from you. But the morning Ginny Weasley upset the Hogwarts goblets, the _Prophet_ had printed something very interesting indeed.

**GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST**

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts.

Witnesses have said that two known followers of He-

Who-Must-Not-Be-Named entered shortly before the

break-in occurred.

Unknown to much of the wizarding world, Gri-

ngotts has for centuries kept a dragon underground to

guard the treasure. During the break-in, the beast was

released and bore possible impostors upon its back as

it made its deadly escape.

"It's a private matter between the goblins, so

keep your noses out if you know what's good for you,"

a Gringotts spokesgoblin reported to the crowd today.

Could this be an attack from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-

Named himself? Where was Harry Potter, the Boy Who

Lived?Furthur information will be extracted and delivered

as soonas our wonderful wizards and witches find out more.

"Harry bloody Potter, what have you done this time?" Ginny muttered as she mopped up the pumpkin juice. The barest hint of affection could be heard in her tone.

Ginny Weasley was a smart girl. She knew that Harry, Hermione, and her brother were out to defeat Voldemort, and that they were following some sort of trail that Dumbledore had started. She also knew it was dangerous, and that combined with Harry's knack for getting into situations where he was three seconds away from dying made a bipolar Ginny – she'd skip between wringing her hands and staring out of her window with worry, and clenching her fists, trying to make sure Harry lived by sheer willpower. On rare occasions she'd stab so hard with her quill that her essays were dotted with ink blots and holes because she was just so frustrated at Harry running off. Once she'd even written a letter, because she'd heard somewhere that that was supposed to help, and ended up feeding it to the giant squid – which, by the way, apparantly didn't like the taste of ink.

But most of the time, Ginny wondered what Harry was doing, whether he thought about her, what he thought of his birthday present from her.

Ah, yes, his birthday present. She couldn't think of what to give him. It had to be something he could take along with him easily, something he wouldn't forget, and something she could give him well. A kiss was the natural answer.

He'd seemed like he enjoyed it.

Ginny glanced down at the article in the _Prophet_ again. Imposters on a dragon – that just screamed, _Harry Potter was here! Big trouble! Big trouble!_ And if the dragon was hungry and half-blind, well . . . she couldn't welcome Harry back if most of him had to be brought back in a basket, could she? Not to mention partially digested.

She snorted. Harry had too much experience with hungry creatures out to kill him to die on a half-blind dragon's back that had just escaped from a secure underground bank vault belonging to Voldemort's right hand. Plus he had a wizarding world to save, and Ginny would be rather put out if he didn't do both.

Not that she was a damsel in distress. Ginny Weasley was far from that. Ginny was an independent woman who just so happened to have a possible boyfriend out there, destined to kill the most deformed Dark Lord the wizarding world had ever seen. Currently, Tom Riddle was rather ugly. She much preferred the diary version of him, even though Diary-Riddle had lured her down into a secret chamber with a giant snake in it.

And then she had to be rescued by Harry Potter, of all people. So maybe she _was_ the damsel in distress. But only that one time! She promised herself she'd never get rescued by anybody ever again. It was just humiliating to her. Even if it was Harry Potter who had to rescue her.

For the millionth time since she'd gotten up that morning, Ginny wondered where Harry was. Maybe still riding the dragon. Maybe he was making his way back to Hogwarts because the trail led there. Maybe she was deluding herself. But her delusions were probably better than what was really going on, so she believed them.

"You better come back in one piece, Harry Potter," Ginny murmured as she cleaned up the last of her pumpkin juice. "Otherwise I'm getting out there and making you."

Ginny paused, thinking it over. Yes, that was what she would do. She would make him come back in one piece! She laughed, not entirely sure she was sane. Perhaps the pressure of the war had driven her over the edge.

If she was insane, she'd probably better start looking for her sanity. Harry wouldn't be pleased if he came back and found her fit to share a ward with Lockhart. Ginny shook her head, trying to push her way back to reality, then blinked.

What if Malfoy or somebody got to him first? It wouldn't be very productive if she had to rescue him, and then go and make sure he came back in one piece. That would mean a lot of extra hexing - which was fun, but . . . Hm, she didn't have a good objection to hexing Death Eaters. Malfoy had been on her list of Hex First And Ask Questions Later If There Are Any Intelligent Bits Left list for a long time. Ginny decided if she ran into him, she'd do exactly that, regardless of whether or not Harry was in trouble.

She stared at the napkin she'd used to mop up her pumpkin juice, dripping and orange. Harry would come back. He'd kill the Dark Lord. And Ginny would be there when he got here.

She would make sure of it.

And, of course, if he didn't, she'd go out, find him, hex him, then make him do it right. Right?

Right.

**I know, I know, this isn't exactly canon, but I haven't read the Deathly Hallows in a while, so forgive me. Or correct me, if you must. It's really not necessary, as I _do_ know this isn't what happened in the book, and I'd much rather you review about the writing itself, not the timeline. I may or may not go back and change it; I'm semi-busy at the moment. Perhaps sometime in the near or far (but more likely far) future I will. I've got an idea of what to change it to already. ****And the formatting screwed up the newspaper article's original format. The article will most likely be removed anyway, but I felt like complaining. **

**And this is a oneshot.**


End file.
